


all in the family

by PapaElijah



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: 1994 Prison World (Vampire Diaries), Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Canon Divergence, Character Death, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Death, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Kai Parker-centric, Mentions of Blood, Murder, Patricide, Prompt Fill, ayyy catch me projecting my teen angst onto a murderer, did y'all expect anything less lmfao, sororicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29135289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PapaElijah/pseuds/PapaElijah
Summary: His father looks at him again, his throat raw and his eyes red, disappointment and anger and hate burning behind the braised black of his gaze. And for the last time, Kai stares into the face of the man who’d shunned him from his own family, who’d locked him away from his siblings to keep the abomination behind closed doors, who’d trapped him in the snapshot of the day he was imprisoned for eighteen years. Because nothing would ever be more important than his reputation, than the coven, both marred by the boy no one ever wanted.(Or, a one-shot in which Kai Parker finally takes revenge against his family at his sister's wedding, after eighteen years of isolation spent in a prison world as punishment for his crimes, and the abuse he suffered under his family.)
Relationships: Josette "Jo" Laughlin & Malachai "Kai" Parker, Josette "Jo" Laughlin/Malachai "Kai" Parker, Joshua Parker & Malachai "Kai" Parker, Joshua Parker/Malachai "Kai" Parker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	all in the family

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone!! it's been a while since i've posted, but i'm back with a shitload of angst :) i've written this for [hellotvshowtrash's](https://hellotvshowtrash.tumblr.com/) #happy2021promptchallenge on tumblr, using the prompt "i never hated you, you just make me feel things i don't understand." and for the 'free space' prompt for [xxwritemeastoryxx's](https://xxwritemeastoryxx.tumblr.com/) two-year blogiversary bingo (also on tumblr). huge thanks to these two incredible writers and people: [robinlikeitshot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/robinlikeitshot/pseuds/robinlikeitshot) and [imaginearyparties](https://imaginearyparties.tumblr.com/) on tumblr, or [themaimevent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/themaimevent/pseuds/themaimevent) on ao3, for helping me with this and being such amazing betas, i love y'all so much <3

Jo carries a bouquet of flowers in her gloved hand, two sets of neatly lined chairs filled with guests on either side of her as she walks down the aisle, arm in arm with their father. The church had been decorated with wooden vases holding arrays of cattails and goldenrod and lilies, with seats garlanded in cherry-blossoms and hyacinths. She steps up onto the altar, a rush of excitement sending colour to her cheeks as she takes Alaric’s hands in hers.

“Welcome, family and friends, on this magical evening, to the wedding of Alaric Saltzman and Josette Laughlin,” Kai hears the reverend say, but then he looks at Jo, at her happy face and the glow in Alaric's eyes, at his father's gaze shining with pride, at the girl surrounded by everything she got out of life, while he spent eighteen years in isolation as the family reject—the sky wanes around him as the night draws nearer, and a knot of emotion tightens in his chest.

There used to be days where he’d thought of her, his head rested on her lap and her hand ruffling his hair as they would talk and talk and talk about everything and nothing all at once. Minutes would become hours, and soon his father would come out with ice creams in each hand, his eyes crinkling and a smile playing at the corners of his mouth at the two children chasing each other in circles. They would laugh brightly as they’d come bounding up to him, running faster than their little legs could carry them, attacking Joshua’s knees in a hug, both yelling something about missing him and asking where he’d been all day. 

He remembers looking outside, holding onto the windowsill, watching her smiling and laughing with his siblings, joy told in catching grins and giggles. He remembers her flinching at his touch, her magic rippling away like peeling skin from bones, seeping through the cracks of his skin. Curling up against his bedroom wall after being locked inside, listening to his parents’ voices from the hallway. Still fresh in his mind, even as she would stop to look up at him from the garden, the dog barking playfully at the kids, almost drowned out by the cries of his new brother and sister.

The heat of distant memories melts his skin and flesh and bone, the blurred and indistinct figure of a boy huddling with his knees again under the darkening line of the twilight sky, the shame gathering up in the hollow part of his chest, scared and worried of never being enough. Kai can see it all again—already fading, distant, unmistakably now someone else’s life, but close enough to make him feel a mixture of pity and disgust for his former self. So he watches from a distance as the ceremony goes on, their voices muffled as though he’s hearing it underwater, the sounds coming from the surface above. 

“Neither one of us should be here right now. We’ve spent our lives dodging fate and beating the odds, but because we did, I got to meet you—the most beautiful, hilarious, and intimidatingly brilliant woman I have ever known.” Damon and Elena share knowing glances, Liv smiling brightly at Tyler as Alaric takes the ring in his hand, glancing up at Jo with a smile warming his eyes. “You’ve shown me that happiness is actually something I can have in my life. And so, I promise to be with you and love you and to dodge fate with you—” he slips the ring onto her finger, and Kai takes out a silver knife from his suit jacket, the altar dancing in front of him, wavering and doubling like he’s drunk, “—for the rest of our lives.”

Jo wipes a tear from her cheek, and Kai steps forward, wrapping an arm around her waist, feeling her stiffen in his hold. He watches her stop mid-sentence, lowering her head and pressing her hands to the blood slowly staining her wedding dress, the guests staring in horror as her knees buckle, her legs shaking, faltering and collapsing into Alaric’s arms. He watches as the groom chokes out a sob, begging her to stay awake just a little while longer, words spilling from his lips as if they were any defence for the inevitable.

Now, Kai stands at the head of the altar, raising his arms to the crowd, knife still gripped in one hand, dripping with red, and a smile just as sharp as its gleaming edge pulling at the corners of his mouth. The world tips and blurs, dizzying and heady with the crackle of raw magic in the air. His father reaches out for him, and with the wave of his hand, the large, golden chandeliers suspended over the centre aisle shatter into the floor, windows bursting into broken glass shards that rain over the screaming guests. Lights blink out, chairs toppling over as bodies bleed out on the ground. 

He steps down, assuming a guise of pity as Alaric cradles Jo’s dead body in his lap, a flushed raw look on his face where he’s wiped away tears. He dares to glance up at him, body hitching with fear and half-smothered sobs, voice breaking into short, scattered syllables, weak breathy pleas—and it reminds Kai of all those years spent in isolation, of a time when _he_ was frail and weak, a boy desperate for his father’s affection.

He hears Joshua call out his name, Liv moving in front to protect their father, voices stringing together into a spell he can almost recognise. Again and once again, Kai thinks of that old memory burning always at the back of his mind—his father walking out from the opening between the trees, pale sunlight filtering in through the thick canopy of oak and boxwood and lighting him up like an angel as Kai was forced onto his knees, cowering, yelling, screaming, crying, begging them to stop. His sister standing by, staring at the ground as the coven began chanting, words dripping from their lips, ringing in his head like a thousand gunshots all at once.

Waking up in a tiny bedroom, up under the eaves, greyish walls and peeling plaster. Nights that sucked him down with the weariness. Cracked glass and the broken reflection of a cruel smile, shattered mirrors and a mouthful of bloody teeth. Staring at curling, dingy paint. Nails cutting half-moons into the pallid skin of his palms. Lying awake, sick with cold, nearly wishing he could go back home again, praying he wouldn’t. Time had gone on, and weeks would become months and months becoming years. No one was coming, and maybe that was what he deserved.

“Hey, I'm sorry about your twinsies. I just don't feel like competing for leadership with future Gemini twins.” Kai bends down, picking up a glass shard laying on the ground, toying with it in his pale hands, staring at his broken, blood-stained reflection. “See, when your family decides that you’re nothing more than an irredeemable piece of trash—well,” he bites out, clean and sharp with a bitter smile twisting his lips, “guess the best thing to do is prove them right. Right?” Kai looks up into the hot, scornful blue of Alaric’s gaze, and the slice of a satisfied grin plays on his lips. 

He feels Liv flinch behind him but hold still, her body tensing as he turns toward her. Kai wants to meet her gaze, but something won’t let him, and he instead looks at the blood wiped across her face, the deep bags lining her glazed, bloodshot eyes, her shaking hands smeared with red, held up against him in defence. “Why are you doing this?” he hears her say in a half-whisper, barely audible between her hitched, trembling gasps, feeling red all around him. “Why did you kill her?”

“I never hated you,” he says, feeling the words rise in him unbidden, though his mouth does not move a muscle, “you just make me feel things I don’t understand.” And then he plunges the shard into her chest, their father watching in frozen horror as that soft look in her eyes dies along with the beat of her heart. Her knees buckle, the fading light in her eyes barely registering Joshua’s voice breaking with emotion as he catches her before she can hit the ground, cradling his daughter’s body in his arms. 

His father looks at him again, his throat raw and his eyes red, disappointment and anger and hate burning behind the braised black of his gaze. And for the last time, Kai stares into the face of the man who’d shunned him from his own family, who’d locked him away from his siblings to keep the abomination behind closed doors, who’d trapped him in the snapshot of the day he was imprisoned for eighteen years. Because nothing would ever be more important than his reputation, than the coven, both marred by the boy no one ever wanted.

So Kai grips the shard in his hand, panting and blood-covered, letting out a weak, shaky laugh as he runs it through his father’s neck. The man wavers, his vision going blurry before going black, his eyes fluttering shut as he lands on the ground with a soft thud. _There is no such thing as redemption, there are only promises and bargains and tricks we play on ourselves to make us believe we’re good people._

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!! you can also find me on [tumblr](https://dumble-daddy.tumblr.com/), and if you enjoyed, it would mean the world to me if you left a comment or a kudos <3


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